Huntsville gazette., 1887-02-12
every clerk has, he gets good deal moro

every clerk has. he gets good deal moro
for pocket money. For instance, if he is
clever he win manage to dine or take
tea or perhaps both meals out every
Sunday. On such occasions he also
foregoes breakfast, with the result that
/ he saves Is l0ad, or in the year "a It's
I'D. In fact every meal that he saves.
and he watches every opportunity for
doing SO, is so much in his pocket for
sundries, extra finery or saving fund.
"Oh, I forgot to say how he manages
to dine for eightpence. Under ordinary
circumstances he buys plate Of beet
for sixpence, potatoes penny, thick
slice of bread penny, waiter-he must
never be forgotten-penny. That's
ninepence, you say. Certainly, but u
offset that, three daysa week he will g.
to an la mode beef-house, where he
will get plate Of delicious beef stew
for fourpence, bread a penny, potatoes
a penny, waiter penny; in all, seven
pence-do you see? These la mode
lighthouses, by the way, are frequented
by the richest men in the city, so the
poor clerks cheap dinner is in no way
infra dig.
81 Think continued the merchant,
''that in my time l have employed
hundreds of young men as clerks
and have watched their
ways. The ambitious ones, a
small minority, either rise some
how or other to important positions
with wages. say, Of two or at most three
pounds week, or else find their way
into some more prosperous undertaking.
The majority, however, remain at a
pound until either shabbiness, lack of
smartness or marriage drives them to
the wall or probably the workhouse.
In his early years his ways are most
interesting. He is up to all manner of
lodges to save his clothes or to seize
what he considers to be honest per-
quisites in the shape Of odd sheets Of
note paper, pens, envelopes, ETC., for
private correspondence at home. He
saves his boots by putting on list slip
pers in the office; he wears an old rag
of coat; he ties little apron over his
waistcoat so as not to hurt it when
leaning against desk, and Of course
he takes off his cuffs-I think cuffs
were invented for clerks. When, how.
ever, he arrives in the morning, OIL
goes out for his midday lunch, he i
simply lovely to look at-that is, the
careful and tidy ffty-pound clerk.
His tall hat-everJ city clerk in Lon
don wears a tall hat-glistens in the
sun. His collar is up to his ears and
his cuffs cover his knuckles and the
rest of him is in full harmony. Now,
there you have him and how he can
live. Let the same man have ten,
twenty or thirty pounds more and he
marries. If he remains single he is
regarded in his particular circle as a
bachelor of opulence, and he really is.
Nov, as to the social position Of
these men. They nearly all belong to
what is known as the middle class.
They regard shopmen as persons be-
meath their station, and probably their
fathers were unsuccessful doctors, law
yers, officers of the army and navy or
something else in the great community
of poorly-paid professional men in
England. But you just put an ad-
vertisement in an English paper for a
clerk at pound a week, and l will
guarantee that you have several hum
dred answers. l once knew an
auctioneer and surveyor in Great
George street, Westminster, who few
years ago advertised for copying
clerk; salary one pound per week.
Answers came by the thousand from
naval and military officers and fathers
Of families, begging for the position to
save them from starvation. ."-Philddel-
phia Press.